ABSTRACT

The interwar years saw the emergence of the professional science journalist and the institutionalisation of science reporting in Britain. The period also witnessed radical changes in the organisation of newspaper publishing and in the content and composition of newspapers themselves. In this context, the emerging cadre of science journalists often found themselves establishing the practical rules of their profession as well as their professional identities as they mediated between the scientifi c community on the one hand and the journalistic profession on the other. The ‘news values’ of science reporting therefore emerged in this period in the course of a process of negotiation between scientists, science journalists, and editors.